Imago Dei

This past week, the 2 year-old that I nanny told me that he wanted to be a superhero (this was after he told me that I could be in his rock band along with his aunt and Terence Cody). In relation, on my last day in India I had gotten up early to walk around and to pray a little when I came across two little boys who were pretending to be Batman and Spiderman and who were trying to conquer the dang crows that were everywhere in the city. And I thought to myself how some things don't change no matter what continent one is on. I also pondered why it is that boys can be so enraptured with superheroes, which led me to the image of God. I'm not trying to go John Eldredge on you, but in different ways, males and females reflect something about the God Who created them, the One in Whose image they are made.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)

Before leaving for India, the whole concept of the imago dei became impressed on my heart. I didn't know why. But God was telling me that it would somehow be connected to India.

I was listening to a podcast by Tim Keller on Genesis 1:26-2:3, and he made the comment that Manhattan has 60,000 people living per square mile in that city. Since there's more image of God per square mile in Manhattan than anywhere else in America, how can God's love not be more intensely focused on that place?

India has the world's second largest population - 1.17 billion people. Kolkata alone is a city of about 15 million people. One Sunday while I was in church in India, a pastor commented that, since God loves people, God loves India more than any other country in the world except for China.

So what are the implications of people being made in the image of God?

1. Value

Being made in the image of God gives someone instant value. They are unique. They expressly communicate something about the Creator that no one else can. This gives dignity to human life.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you..." (Jeremiah 1:5a)

Each life has been formed by God. He has made you exactly the way you are for a specific reason. He knows you (Ps. 139). And He loves you just the way you are. You are a reflection of Him.

As I was surrounded by a thousand Christian Indian students in Shillong, God reminded me that each of these precious people reflect something about God that I cannot. And because they are believers, I need them. As part of the same Body, we all need each other. I may live on the other side of the world, but we all need each other to be the Body, to live out the calling that God has placed on us, to use the gifts and talents that He has given to us. If we don't, the Body and the world will suffer as a result.

2. How we treat people

Infanticide. Abortion. Euthanasia. Race. Mental ability. - Our views on these issues stem from our belief on the value of human life. Either we firmly hold that each life is precious because it is made in the image of God, or we base our judgment of a life's worth on human capability.

Warning: basing life on one's capability quickly makes a life expendable.

A low respect for human life is the reason for so much of the disparity that I saw in India. It is why parents sell their children to work in factories or sell them into prostitution just for the money. It's the reason for the caste system that, although legally abolished, is still socially upheld. It's the foundation for the low regard for women. This is what happens when individuals and when whole cultures do not view people as made in God image. They are disposable. There is no human dignity here. Value comes from what you do, not who you are. Therefore, work is essential because it gives you your worth. But when God is not the foundation, the building will crumble.

When I was in the slums of India, I had only walked a few feet when I determined not to take any more pictures of the people in those slums. In a small way, I wanted to preserve what little dignity they felt that they had. I wanted to demonstrate respect towards them, especially in a society that has little respect for its untouchables. I wonder how many of these people realize that they are valuable to God or that they are valuable period. Who has told them that they are loved? Who has told them that they are precious and that they have worth? Even if they have heard such words, have they been treated in such a manner?

Consider this statement by C.S. Lewis in his sermon entitled "The Weight of Glory":
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature, which if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."

When we look at others and when we interact with people, do we do so with the mentality that they have been created in God's image? What dictates preferential treatment but a view of worth based on capability rather than on their creation.

How can we love God if we do not love the people - all of the people - whom He has created?

Every time I walked the streets or drove down the road, God reminded me that the people swarming around are His. He made them, and He loves them. This changed how I looked at the beggar, the broken, and the Brahmin. It made it easier to look on them with love and to act accordingly even when they smelled bad, frustrated me, scared me, or broke my heart. God loves them. He is broken over their hurts and over their bondage to so many lies.

Be a blessing.

When we are blessed by the Lord, we should bless others. We must become channels of God's blessings and love. We must give hands and feet to the Gospel. We must show its truth by living and working out our faith. We must offer ourselves to be the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies in order to produce life.

The people that I saw and met - they don't even know that they were made in the image of God. Most do not even know God. They worship several of gods and goddesses, but they do not know the One True God, which is the crux of the entire matter.

If you look at the scads of photos that I took while in India or even my top 20 on this blog, the people in those pictures may now be but a blur to you, just a nameless person in a photograph. But that person is a reflection of the Creator. You may not know their name, and I may not be able to pronounce it. But God knows them intimately. He made them, and He wants them to know Him and to be in relationship with Him.

They have value to Him, yet we walk by them without seeing them. We flip quickly through photo albums of people and places that mean little to us but that are deeply known and loved by God. We're quick to become desensitized to abject poverty, to the vaporous nature of human life, and to man's desperate need for God. But what's important to God should be essential to us. If we truly have the conviction that what we believe is real, then we would go to them that are in darkness. But, instead, we are allowing Satan to buy up the opportunity while we're wasting time trying to decide if we're willing to pay the cost.


*India Journal, January 3rd:
"You formed them in the womb. Before the creation of the world, You had a plan for their life, a reason for their existence. They bring something to Your creation that no one else can bring. They reflect You in a way that I cannot. They have value and worth, not because of their caste, color, SES level, etc. They have value and dignity because they are Yours. You made them. Like the Wemmicks in Max Lucado's children's books - they are special. We, like snowflakes, are one of a kind. There is great potential in each soul. There is great capability in each person because of the marvelous design of their Creator.

Do we view each other in this manner? Do we treat each other as though this is reality? Because this is the reality. How God loves the leper and the dalit! How God knows their name, knows the number of hairs on their head, knows the length of their days, knows their comings and goings! Not only does He know, but He cares about it all because He cares about THEM.

The baby girl in the decrepit tent in the Guwahati slums - God sees her poverty. He sees her beauty. He sees what she could be. Do we? Why aren't we going and helping such as these? If we truly believe in the imago dei, then why aren't we helping to improve her situation? Why are we allowing the hopelessness to continue?

The beggars lined along the paths to the temple - destitute, dirty, damned to a life of hunger, a life of hopelessness, and an eternity in Hell. What are we doing to elevate their status, to improve their conditions in life, to give them knowledge of the hope and future they can have in Christ? Do we even 'see' them?

In John 9, Jesus gives sight to the blind man, but in verse 1, John tells us that first Jesus SAW this blind beggar. While talking with His disciples and walking down the road, Jesus did not ignore the beggar. He was not ignorant of His plight nor hardened of heart towards his great need. He saw the man's pain and did not pass him by. Jesus values each person even those whom His culture did not esteem - tax collectors, Samaritans, women, and sinners. Jesus loves them all.

'"'Truly I say to you, as you did to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'" (Matthew 25:40)

'...you did it to me.' - What have you done to your Lord?"